Today in the Spotlight we have an interview with young entrepreneur: Tom Hoskin

Tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Tom Hoskin, I am a young retail and marketing entrepreneur, investment prize winner and founder of British menswear label Oscar Millennium.

What is Oscar Millennium all about?

Everyone is tired of cheap fast fashion; Oscar Millennium aims to challenge this. We use only premium organic and sustainable fabrics, and having everything made in British mills creates quality that many other companies cannot match. Every man has that one favourite item of clothing – their ‘go to’ piece in their wardrobe. Oscar Millennium crafts pieces that will feel great wash after wash and become your favourite wardrobe piece.

You had a lot of success with digital and social media marketing during your recent crowdfunding campaign. Why do you think digital advertising is so much more effective than traditional print adverts?

Put simply, traditional print advertising is outdated. There is no engagement, no clear analysis of results and no effective targeting. These factors make for an expensive, bulky and time consuming marketing exercise which very rarely works. With digital (Facebook ads and Google retargeting) you can create far greater returns which can be easily analysed, they are also far faster to implement and far more flexible on price. Instead of a blanket marketing campaign of print you can target directly to your customer’s specific demographic be it via age, gender, income or likes and interests. People who are online are far more susceptible to call to actions as well, as they are already engaged on the platform. All they have to do is simply click a link to cross over to your business, opposed to print advertising where even if you reach your right customer they are far more likely to put down the paper or flyer and forget about the advert in a matter of seconds.

Why is word of mouth so important to you?

Word of mouth is extremely important; studies have shown that endorsement through word of mouth carries the greatest weight in affecting new customer decisions. People trust their friends and so positive word of mouth is a great way to spread your business. We’ve just launched our new website so people sharing their positive experiences and driving traffic to us is great to see.

How have you found using Recommendable so far? And, most importantly, would you recommend it to a friend?

Recommendable has proven invaluable for me. Running my business alongside university studies means that I’m often pushed for time, so the simple set up through my Facebook account was very stress-free. I know that my target audience are huge consumers of digital media, so having the Recommendable platform to store and share my happy customer’s recommendations is really rewarding and helps grow my brand.